#i think we've just like. forgotten how to catharsis. as a collective

[sanstropfremir]

not the same anon but i thought it was interesting that the person shared they loved how transparent and more performative kpop is. and how kpop is a brand more than a band. i feel like the push has been the opposite, especially for the 4th gen. there's more content for idols to show "their real personalities". also, with more and more idols producing their own group's music, its a way to show that these idols are not "brands" and are "true artists" (whatever that means). like we see more behind-the-scenes of idols and their "participation" in their work to help push this agenda. maybe i read/understood that post wrong?

but i definitely agree that i wish we see more from the creative teams that help build these idols. taeyeon's/hyuna's stylist has a youtube channel and even though she only shows v small glimpses of her work, it was still interesting to see.

no i think you understood it right! i didn't really touch on it in that particular post but yes there is absolutely a push to 'make things more authentic' in kpop at the moment that runs counterintuitively to the nature of the work. i've mentioned it a lot in my bts posts and maybe in a couple other places here and there but the whole movement towards portraying the idol industry as something closer to like how indie artists work is a) bringing down the quality of the work, b) disingeniuous to everyone who works behind the idols, and c) it blurs the line between personal life and job. entertainment companies now are pushing the whole idols as real-people-musicians-type deal because it brings the industry closer to how the western pop industry is perceived, where the pervading myth is that all major pop stars are just very talented people that just 'happened' to make it big. i know i'm also maybe blowing the artistic standards of this a bit out of proportion because at the end of the day, the idol persona is meant to be the product that's marketed to consumers, but personally i find that boring and capitalistic and a pretty big indicator that celebrity culture has destroyed our collective human desire to seek out good stories/art. like we obviously still do it, considering how scandals and drama always generate a huge amount of attention, but we've lost the ability to understand that that doesn't have to be real. i see lots of people on youtube making videos about why drama channels and the such are so popular and like.......it's literally because human beings like stories. we've just replaced sitting around a firepit/in an alehouse/going to the theatre/reading a book even with doomscrolling through tiktok/twitter/youtube or whatever, without telling anyone that the content doesn't have to be real. idk i think i'm going off on a really obtuse and kind of pretentious tangent here but like. this is my whole thing about the lack of public arts education. and not like, learning how to read music or how to paint or whatever, because i think that's what people think arts education means; i mean education about the history and function of art in human culture. i'm very privileged to have been well educated, but even i, who have had a lengthy arts-dominant education, didn't realize just how old and how transcendant and how human storytelling is until the fourth year of my THEATRE undergrad. like people will say it all the time, but no one ever backs it up or SHOWS it to you. almost every culture has a form of storytelling/theatre that involves specific character archetypes and usually masks: ancient greek theatre, several forms of chinese theatre and dance including peking opera, indonesian shadow puppet theatre, japanese noh theatre, korean talchum, italian commedia dell'arte, english and european mystery and miracle plays. it is literally everywhere. even in forms that don't necessarily involve strict archetypes like kabuki theatre still have traditions in which the actors go by stage names which are passed down through schools or families for generations. we know and have known for literal thousands of years that good stories are not real and they do not have to be to be valuable. the idol industry (and celeb culture as a whole) is like, a weird twisted funhouse mirror: you are obviously and clearly doing a job but also you're not allowed to ever say or acknowledge that you're doing a job; you have to make art (or 'content') but the quality and content of the art doesn't matter; you have to be real but you can't be human. it's really fucked up and dangerous and unsustainable and i truly think it's rotting our brains.

[kitten1618x]

Way too completely rip off a (bad) article and not give credit dude.

Anywho... lets unpack this a bit, shall we?

Why the fuck should Jon have to keep his identity a secret? Whatever happened to all the jonerys shippers screaming about how Dany would be so elated to not be the last Targaryen? Wasn’t she supposed to immediately accept him? Aegon+Dany= TaRgARYeN rEsTORaTiON and they rule together, and/or blah blah red door, etc.? What happened to that? I’ll tell you what happened—it was bullshit. All Dany stans have ever wanted for Jon was for him to be her subservient little lap dog. That’s exactly why she “wants things to go back to the way they were”—back to before he had a claim that superseded hers. And furthermore, the poor man is having a legit identity crisis. SO MUCH SO that he’s too ashamed to even pet his own fucking Wolf goodbye because he feels undeserving and unsure of whom he’s supposed to be. And NOT once—not one fucking time—did Dany (the supposed love of his life who loves him so much) ever ask Jon if he was okay. (Because clearly he’s not.) Nope. Because his pain is always forgotten at the expense of hers, and I’m tired. He has every—and I mean, EVERY—right to tell his family. Not just for the catharsis of maybe sharing it with people who love him, but to also let his sisters know that their father was in fact a faithful and honorable man to his very core. Something I should think that Jon would like to do to honor the man that raised him, and LIED for him, for seventeen+ fucking years.

His character has only become more “two-dimensional” since we’ve been locked out of his actual POV since damn near the beginning of season seven when he met the dragon queen. Gee, I wonder why? Plot twists abound, I’m sure. It’s cheap, but that’s apparently how D&D roll, and perhaps by now, we should be used to it? Also, no one is forcing anyone to watch the fucking show. Not liking what you’re seeing? Change the channel, Susan—it’s really that simple.

The Starks are perfectly in-character considering the shit they’ve endured for seven fucking seasons, thank you. Why the hell should they trust anyone? What has trusting ever got them? Remember the red wedding much, people? I mean, there’s so many more instances than just that—but how much time do you have? What the fuck did you all miss about “the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives”?? What did you think that meant? They are protecting their pack. Period.

And jfc I am so tired of hearing how Dany ‘came to save the North at great cost to herself’. Y’all regurgitate the same. damn. shit. Is the North not a part of the seven fucking kingdoms that she wants to rule? Did you all think that the dead were gonna just pick off the North and then go back over the wall? A wall which might have kept the dead out longer if not for Dany’s stupid fucking unnecessary and pointless armistice that caused the NK to get his hands on a dragon, mind you. Nope. The dead would have made their way down south and killed everyone eventually. It was a collective problem, and truly EVERYONE should have been the fuck up at ground zero winterfell, defending the fucking realm. So, if it was “Jon’s war” —as Dany likes to call it—then why does she think she’s entitled to slide ‘Protector of the Realm’ up in her cadence of fifty fucking titles she carries?

How is Sansa being petty? For wanting Northern Independence? A BIG-ASS running theme that’s been carried all the way from season one? Something damn near her entire family fought and died for? Something she was beaten and raped for? Yes, god fucking forbid she want to retain the agency that her character FINALLY got six fucking seasons into the show. The petty ass bitch—how dare she?? And while we’re at it, how dare this dumb ass bitch dare to protect her home and family? The travesty! But you did get one thing right, homegirl is strong, and always has been—which is why she was able to endure the horrible things she’s been through—not because of them.

The whole Dany as a Mad Queen isn’t ‘super-forced’, because Dany isn’t mad. She’s quite sane, and acting the same way she has for EIGHT FUCKING SEASONS. If you didn’t see that, it was because you chose NOT to—not because that shit came out of nowhere.

Jaime likely went south to kill his sister, knowing full-well he’s the only one who can get close enough to her to do it, and also likely knowing it’s a suicide mission. Very clearly keeping with his character development of being the better person that someone as pure as Brienne deserves. Why didn’t he tell Brienne that? Probably to keep her from coming after him. To keep her safe. Why? Because he actually does love her.

I have nothing to say about douche ex machina Urine Greyjoy. He’s a complete asshat who does nothing to further the narrative except accomplish a level of unbelievable badassery for all the little fuck boi’s at home to fist pump over, and occasional ‘lame’ comic relief. But—per GRRM, the dragons are the literal equivalent of nuclear weapons, and—sorry, not sorry—but they need to go.

And shockingly (not really) the TRUE travesty of the episode—using the death of one of the only two POC on the show as a plot device, didn’t even make your list. Missandei deserved better.

Seriously, I’m tired.

THIS!

It feels like D&D are trying to ruin as many characters as posible before the show is over